


Reassignment

by Dr_Psyche



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 13:56:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr_Psyche/pseuds/Dr_Psyche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lyzack receives a reassignment to a mining outpost run by Strika. In-spite of her anxiety she meets up with a few kindred sparks, like the ever "trustworthy" Airachnid, and Slipstream a disgraced former Seeker, all the while conspiracy brews around the base and whatever it is they're looking for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The transport shuttle had come out of light-speed, and now cruised along the planet Remar. Lyzack looked out the window, at the planet, so many untapped resources present. The space station Al-Jabr was coming into view, and the autopilot’s monotone voice came on over the speakers, informing her that they would arrive in Fifteen Minutes. Al-Jabr orbited a large brown planet called Decaboid.

Lyzack took another look around the shuttle, it was mostly used for cargo, and several metal crates lined the back. They all contained weapons, generic servos and other parts for repair, as well as a few commicubes. 

Lyzack gathered her possessions, an energon blade/ rifle combination, and a commucube she had customized for herself, containing pictures of her old life, and some recorded memories she liked to watch. She separated the blade and rifle and stored them on her wings. She stored the cube in a compartment on her side and waited for the ship to dock.

Al-Jabr was a large station, it was a long metal rod with three rings around it, the largest had several levels, and 5 different docks for ships, the two smaller ones were located above and below the large ring and were mostly for observation. A sixth dock met a twilight elevator on the planet, located on a heavily guarded mine. The Locals and Autobot group would frequently attack it, which necessitated the command center. 

The Ship docked, and depressurized, a helper drone moved in and began unloading. Lyzack helped the diminutive droid, as two diagnostic drones came in and began unloading the contents in the boxes.

Lyzack walked up to the dock manager, Octane, and asked “Excuse me, I’ve just been assigned, where am I to report to?”

Octane turned around and looked her over, “Report to Commander Strika, she’ll give you a directive and show you your quarters.”

Lyzack thanked him and was off, one Diagnostic Drone assigned to show her to the General.

“How odd, that the commander herself seems to introduce the new recruits,” she thought.

She followed the Diagnostic drone, which pulled a data pad from a slot in the wall and handed it to her. As she followed it, she looked at all the personal, matching names to the ones she passed. In addition to Octane, she passed Deluge, a scientist, and one of the interrogators, an eight-legged fembot named Airachnid, the two bots nearby, Ruckus and Hydrahead, steered clear of her, and the diagnostic drone even seemed to move away.

Airachnid looked her over, and Lyzack shivered slightly, her file listed her as a torture technician. 

She had arrived at Strika’s quarters. The drone departed leaving her in front of the impressive door.

Lyzack knocked once

“Come in.” Boomed a voice from inside.

Lyzack pushed a button and the door slid open. Inside was a large office like room. A reinforced blast window looked out onto the planet, and a desk, large enough for the room’s occupant, sat in front of it. The walls were covered in holographic awards or honors that General Strika had achieved in her life, as well as pictures of other high ranking officers. 

Strika was behind the desk, a large data pad on it. Strika was a large-bot, larger than all the other fembots that Lyzack had met. She was slightly shorter than Deathsaurus, but she was definitely broader.

Strika’s optics bore into Lyzack, who began to really feel her diminutive height more than usual.

“You are from Deathsaurus’s unit correct?” Strika asked.

“Yes, ma-am, Commander, I mean,” Lyzack said, mentally cursing herself for breach in protocol.

Strika paid it no comment to the formalities, “I’ve been informed you were a servant of Deathsaurus,” Strika stated. 

“Yes, commander,” Lyzack said.

“We have no use for servants here, only warriors,” Strika said, glaring at her.

“Yes commander, I’ve been into combat,” Lyzack stated, remembering the few battles she was in.

“Your Bio informs me of certain bladed training,” Strika said, “You will be assigned to patrol E, you’re room is on Deck 6 room 4, with Windsweeper, you are to report for duty on your assigned day.”

Strika wrote a code down on her data pad which Lyzack scanned, several schedules beamed into her processor, and she was aware of her patrol schedule, which would star three days from then.

“Dismissed,” Strika said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding Character Designs:
> 
> Octane: Henkei body, Lyzack wings of Honor Body, and Strika is in her Machine Wars Body. Diagnostic Drones look as they do in Beast Machines.
> 
> Continuity: The Canon combines elements from numerous stories, but chiefly from the G1 and IDW stories.
> 
> Originally posted on Fanfiction.net.


	2. Chapter 2

Lyzack walked through the corridors, before finally arriving at her room. She pressed the button and the door slid open. She looked inside the habitat, it was really clean, 2 recharging slabs were on either walls, both had two shelves above them for personal effects. A Data-port was located on the wall directly from the door, allowing for communication. Near the bed (recharge-slab) on her right was another Con, furiously scrubbing one end of the slab.

“Um, hello,” Lyzack began, “Windsweeper?”

Windsweeper turned to face her, he was a red-orange-grey bot with parts that made her think he could fly. 

“Don’t you take one step in here, who are you?” he asked.

“I’m Lyzack, I’m rooming with you,” she said.

Windsweeper cursed, and remembered the message he had gotten, Strika wasn’t happy that he annoyed his other three roommates so much they all demanded transfer.

Lyzack stepped in, and Windsweeper winced, as she was probably getting foreign contaminant all over the floor. 

She pointed at the recharge-slab, asking if it was hers, he nodded and went back to scrubbing the end of his bed.

She sat down, and took her cube out and placed it on the shelf above her, and the shelf above that she placed her weapons.

Some of the data she had received from the transmission told her to get accustomed to the surroundings before she was deployed. She left her stuff and went to see the ship. As soon as she’d gone, Windsweeper began scrubbing at where she had stood.

She looked around the ship. The central area had a few elevators that would take her to the observation decks. The Observation decks, she noted, had lots of weaponry on them, turrets and anti-ship missiles.

She watched two cons load one and use it to blast away some asteroids. She took the elevator down to the main deck, finding the mess, where several bots: Spectro, Sqawkbox and Wingspan were laughing about the culture of the natives; a biomechanical species, finding their ways ludicrous. She left and went to the waste disposal, where the cranky head janitor, Crankcase, got annoyed at her and told her to leave. She saw him drop his current load of scrapmetal into the atmosphere, letting it burn up. She saw the lower observation deck, it was very much similar to the upper observation deck, viewing and weaponry, one of the bots Ser-Ket, followed her into the elevator.

Ser-ket had an animalistic appearance, and her colors reminded Lyzack of Barrage, an insecticon she had met in passing.

Ser-Ket had wide movable wings, and a claw or tail in her back. Lyzack was always suspicious of cons with animalistic alt-modes, the Insecticons and Terrocons weren’t pleasant.

Ser-Ket caught Lyzack looking at her.

“See anything you like?” she asked.

Lyzack was taken aback, “I’m sorry, I’m just new here,” she said.

“Ah, the new girl,” Ser-Kt said, extending a claw, which Lyzack shook.

Ser-Ket smiled at her, a smile which Lyzack found off putting, “I really should introduce you to Airachnid, she’d love you,” Ser-Ket said.

“What’s your chasse? You look like a sky-raider,” Ser-Ket said.

“Oh, I am, I know it’s a little outdated,” Lyzack said.

“Huh, but other than that, I haven’t seen a Female Decepticon in a while, It’s just me Airachnid and Strika, whenever she shows,” Ser-Ket said.

“Huh, well, I haven’t seen any female cons in a while,” Lyzack said, remembering only Esmeral.

“Well, we should get to know you better, come to rec-room 3 tomorrow at around this time,” Ser-Ket smiled at her again, and departed from the elevator.

Lyzack rode it to her floor and got off. Ser-Ket was off-putting, but it might just be her design, she seemed nice enough, and finding a non-hostile Con was so hard now-a-days.

She smiled, perhaps she’d met her first friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters appearances:
> 
> Ser-Ket: Prime Body. Airachnid Prime body. Windsweeper, Squawkbox and Wingspan are all in their original forms as is Crankcase.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Yuani Campaign, The Seekers place.

“Fellow Seekers,” Starscream said, making a grandiose gesture, “We have made another successful bombing raid.”

A few bots gave out a cheer, Slipstream just reclined in her chair and let out a groan.

“Now our bombing quota has met, fifteen runs in the past month, right on schedule!” Starscream said.

Another round of cheer rose from the ranks of flight enabled Decepticons

“Finally, I thought we’d never get out of the Yuani Campaign,” Acid-Storm said, the green-seeker was talking to Dirge.

“We ain’t out of the woods yet,” Dirge said.

“However, the battle remains to be fought,” Starscream continued, “As such, we’ll be staying another month to fill another bombing quota, at this rate, we’ll be able to conquer the other half of this hemisphere by the end of this year!”

A collective groan emerged from the gathered cons.

“Told ya so,” Dirge said.

They were dismissed and headed back to their quarters. 

“So the fearless leader leads us back into battle, into the thick of our patriotic war,” Slipstream said, “Truly he is the great hero of Yuani,”

“Eh, give Screamer a break, we all wanna see a victory,” Thundercracker said.

“Does that Victory involve Starscream flying above Lugnut to avoid the Anti-Air cannons, or does it involve him only holding half the amount of bombs, so he can drop and run faster?” Slipstream asked.

“Probably neither,” Thundercracker said.

“He’s just showboating so he can look better than all the other generals, by next week he’s probably going to try and off Megatron again, isn’t he?” she asked.

“Oh yes, this time he plans to poison his drink,” Thundercracker said.

“Wait,” Slipstream said, stopping, “Didn’t he try that already? Megatron smashed the glass and stabbed Screamer’s optics.”

“Oh yeah, I remember. Good times,” Thundercracker said.

Slipstream smiled at the memory and went to her room.

The next day was fairly standard, the air force went underway, Slipstream took her place next to Skywarp and Thundercracker, Starscream took the lead right in front of them. Behind them Lugnut flew, with Blitzwing and Astrotrain flanking his right, and the Coneheads flanking his left. Surrounding them was a battalion of Vehicons and Other Seekers. Acid-Storm, Triggerhappy and Slugslinger brought up the rear.

The raid started well, they moved into position and unleashed their weaponry on the nearest stronghold. The Installation fell quickly and Starscream laughed as the small bots, almost ant-like, ran from them, only to be blown up or torn apart by shrapnel.

The second installation shot up a plethora of surface to air missiles. The Vehicons returned fire, blowing up most and trying to evade the rest. Three Vehicons were destroyed, two others and Thrust were damaged and had to turn back. 

The second bombing raid was also successful, a detachment of jets flew right down into the Autobot munitions factory and fired their missiles. Various Autobot turrets sprang up and shot at them, tearing one’s wings apart and destroying two others. One seeker dropped and unguided bomb and let the momentum carry it straight into the turret operator’s face, blowing him and his weapon up.

They began to bomb supply lines leading away from the base, when they found a contingent of Autobot fliers heading toward them. Starscream was first to engage, flying forward, right before he did, he ordered Skywarp to teleport himself and three other seekers right behind the contingent, they appeared, and opened fire on the unsuspecting rear, blowing up one bot and downing three others. Starscream hit one Autobot with a side-winder and engaged another. One of them, Powerglide, used his machine gun to fire into and destroy a Vehicon’s grill, sending him down. The other 14 Autobots rushed to challenge the Decepticons, with Triggerhappy and Slugslinger moving from their rear position to attack. 

The dogfight persisted, while Acid-Storm and two vehicons continued the bombing raid, testing out his chemicals for maximum damage. 

Powerglide evaded the much slower Lugnut’s machine guns, flying loops around him and scoring hits all over. Blitzwing was shot down, but he just transformed to tank mode and smashed into one of the Autobot’s cock-pits, crushing the nose and canopy, killing him, he then re converted back into a jet, made a crash landing, and took on ground forces as a tank.

Astrotrain moved his top mounted cannon to fire on Powerglide, he dodged it, but in doing so got back into Lugnut’s line of fire. The large Decepticon’s machine-gun shredded one of Powerglide’s wings and he had to land. 

A seeker jet blasted off the tailfins of one Autobot plane, and sent it down, shooting at it until the bot exploded. 

Skywarp was blindsided, and had his cockpit shot up by an Autobot. The damage knocked him out and he went into a nosedive.

“We got a Seeker down,” Thundercracker yelled.

“It’s only Skywarp,” Slipstream said curtly.

Thundercracker growled, transformed and flew after Skywarp, grabbing him and another downed Seeker, and flying back towards allied territory.

“Sentimental idiot,” Slipstream thought.

The remaining Autobots fought until only three were airborn, and they flew off, Slugslinger getting one last shot in to blow off one of their wings. 

The Decepticons flew to the third target who had used the distraction to raise their weapons and shields. Dirge and Slugslinger were damaged, and the airborne injured retreated to Astrotrain. Starscream ordered them to continue but the group retreated, Lugnut giving one last go, crippling most of their shields, but taking severe damage in the process. Defeated, the pack flew home.

Later

Starscream pounded his fist down on the war table “How dare you defy me and retreat, I can’t believe this!” He shouted at the assembled group.

Acid Storm, Slipstream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Blitzwing and Ramjet all sat at the table.

“Because of your incompetence, we lost our squad and couldn’t destroy the final target. Your failure has caused us all to fail,” he said.

Skywarp let out his bored groan, and Slipstream bit down on a remark she was going to make. 

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to do better, tomorrow,” Starscream said, scowling.

“No!” Ramjet yelled, slamming a fist onto the war table, “We lost over half the squad to that bombing run, an unnecessary one, as we had finished the job. We should all be on the nearest cruiser out of here, not risking our skid-plates for some planet.”

“You have something to say Ramjet?” Starscream asked, the acidly.

“You’re a terrible leader, your plan involved us running at the fortified enemy, after a dogfight, a plan that could have been avoided entirely. We filled our quota, we should be gone, not ego stroking your resume,” Ramjet said.

“Watch your tongue and no your place, Ramjet,” Starscream said, growling.

Ramjet stood up quickly, letting his chair clatter to the floor, “Screw you Scream, I’ve had enough of your orders,” he said.

Slipstream was interested now, as was Skywarp.

“Is this an act of treachery, of usurpation, do you wish to take command?” Starscream mocked.

“Well, you ain’t no stranger to it are you Scream,” Ramjet said, closing the distance and glaring at his face.

Starscream smirked, that smug smirk which he knew pissed everyone off, what was Ramjet going to do, take command? At that point, Ramjet slammed his forehead into Starscream’s, knocking him over. 

Starscream was stunned, as he lay on the floor, rubbing his forehead.

Ramjet glared down at him.

“Yes, finally something interesting,” Skywarp said, clapping his hands together.

“For once, I actually agree with the idiot, “ Slipstream said, “Starscream, you just got beaten by the guy who crashes into things, you may have actually reached a new low.”

Thundercracker got up and between the two “Stop it both of you. You’re acting like a couple of protoforms wining for a parent. Save the aggression for--”

Ramjet and Starscream both shoved him out of the way, and Ramjet tackled Starscream. He started punching his face, until Starscream rotated his guns at the shoulder to point at Ramjet, and shot him point blank.

Ramjet fell off, but soon got up, just as Starscream did the same. Starscream punched Ramjet in the jaw, and then staggered back, rubbing his sore hand.

Starscream activated his jets and jumped back, putting distance between him and Ramjet. Ramjet charged forward, and Starscream shot him in the knee with a null ray. Ramjet went down, his left leg useless. 

“Aw, what’s the matter Ramjet, can’t quite beat me can you?” Starscream mocked.

Ramjet turned over, pointed his right leg, and fired his two thrusters built into it at Starscream, at a wider spray.

The attack knocked Starscream over, and allowed Ramjet to get back up. Ramjet limped over to Starscream, but his immobilized leg slowed him, so Starscream hit him with his Nullray, deactivating him.

Starscream stood, victorious saying, “Does anyone else want to challenge me?”

Slipstream carefully considered it, but concluded that the fight had not softened up Starscream to an extent.

Thundercracker lifted up the deactivated Ramjet and prepared to take him to the Med-bay.

“No, no mercy to traitors,” Starscream said.

Immediately Blitzwing and Skywarp burst out laughing, with Slipstream and Acid-Storm joining in. Thundercracker tried to contain himself, but his smirk still showed.

“What? What?” Starscream asked, oblivious to the irony.

“Scream, just shut up,” Blitzwing said.

“Fine, if you don’t like how I run things, then I’m transferring myself to Earth, and taking command there,” Starscream said, “If Megatron wants to continue his Nebulos campaign, then I’m taking over the Earth initiative.”

“Finally, I kinda miss that place,” Thundercracker said.

“Yeah, well you can keep missing it, I’m taking charge there as Second in Command of the Decepticon forces, not Seeker commander. Right now, I herby disband the Seeker Brigade!” Starscream said indignantly.

That stopped the laughing. The bots in the room stared at Starscream in silence, until Slipstream said, 

“Finally! Primus, it took you this long, but I finally don’t have to put up with you.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about going back to the Science Brigade, Mixmaster and I have got a Project we’ve been looking at,” Acid-Storm said thoughtfully.

“Wait, Starscream you can’t do this, we’ve been flying together since the start, and the Seeker team has remained since Helex, we can’t just quit now,” Thundercracker said.

“I decreed it, it’s done, no more Seekers, you are all to be transferred to your new places. Good-bye.” With that, Starscream left in a huff. 

They were all left to ponder, Blitzwing, uncaring as he wasn’t a seeker, left to finish his repair cycle, and Thundercracker followed him, needing to drop Ramjet off at his repair bay. Skywarp was pissed he didn’t get word in, and he Acid Storm and Slipstream returned to their rooms.

The next day, the seekers prepped for reassignment. Thrust and Skywarp would be heading to Nebulos to join Sunstorm in the campaign, Slugslinger and Triggerhappy were sent as well, Scorponok apparently wanted to test an experiment out. Thundercracker was headed back to Cybertron to be placed in command of the aerial forces. Slipstream soon realized that Starscream had assigned their positions, as she was to be sent to a mining facility satellite called Al-Jabr, she cursed her fortune at being placed at such a remote and unimportant location. Ramjet was left on the planet and Dirge followed Starscream to Earth. Acid-Storm had himself sent back to the science facility, a mobile Space-Station, currently testing out planet breakers in the LU system.

The day after they prepped to leave. Slipstream said no good-byes to anyone, good riddance to them all. The Cone-heads bid each other good luck, and Acid-Storm bid Thundercracker a farewell.

She prepared to leave in her shuttle when Thundercracker approached her.

“Slipstream wait,” Slipstream rolled her optics, but turned to her fellow seeker, “What is it?”

She was surprised when Thundercracker pulled her into a hug, an earth custom he must have picked up. 

“Good luck,” he said to her.

Slipstream was caught off guard by the gesture, but soon remembered that it was normal of Thundercracker.

The gesture still made her smile a bit, and she returned the hug

“At least you’ve got a cushy new job,” she said.

Thundercracker disengaged, and told her, “Hey, opportunity is everywhere, you just have to look for it.”

Slipstream headed up to the shuttle, waving at him, and watching him approach a sour looking Ramjet, he went to shake the white-red bot’s hand, and when Ramjet took it, he pulled him into a hug as well.

A thought hit Slipstream, the seekers were finally disbanded, once Megatron’s greatest legion, now shattered over petty arguments. She felt a pang of regret, as she watched her “family” go. The emotion caught her off-guard, and she wondered if this was how Thundercracker felt, being the “Sentimental Idiot” of the bunch.

She sighed, the full regret of having lost her position in the world setting in. The auto-pilot informed her that they were headed for Al-Jabr and the ship set off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lugnut: Generations body
> 
> Astrotrain/Blitzwing: Approximations of their original bodies.
> 
> Seekers: Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron bodies
> 
> Triggerhappy and Slugslinger: G1 bodies.
> 
> Vehicons: Prime Bodies
> 
> Powerglide: G1 body.


	4. Chapter 4

Rec Room 3: Al-Jabr

Airachnid reclined on the chair, staring at the broadcast monitor. It was playing old propaganda, like Megatron’s rally cry at Tarn though she found it quite dreary.

Ser-Ket came in at that moment, watching the broadcaster.

“Didn’t he make the same speech when we set up New Kaon?” she asked.

“Probably,” Airachnid said, and then asked, “Where’s the new girl?”

“She’s here,” Ser-Ket said gesturing towards Lyzack.

Lyzack stepped into the rec-room. She saw the three broadcast monitors, only one on, and several reclining chairs. The walls had numerous laser and ordinance holes from when Con’s discharged their guns to relax. 

“Um Hello, I’m Lyzack, pleased to meet you,” Lyzack said, giving a nervous smile off, and reaching out a hand.

Airachnid stood up and shook it, “Airachnid. Charmed,” she said.

Lyzack continued to smile, a little anxious at meeting new people, she’d only talked to Esmeral and her Brother’s team, for most of her assignment back with Deathsaurus, and before them, her graduating class.

Airachnid listened and committed her voice to memory, anticipating the sound of her screams.

“So, you just transferred from Deathsaurus’s unit? Is he still an old windbag?” Airachnid asked.

“General Deathsaurus is… kinda theatrical I guess,” Lyzack said.

“Theatrical’s an understatement,” Ser-Ket said, “I’ve seen his rants, the term ‘curses’ and ‘take over the world’ were used so many times they’ve lost meaning to me.”

“He’s too full of himself,” Airachnid said.

Lyzack shrugged.

“So where’d you come from?” Ser-Ket asked changing the subject.

“Carburisia,” Lyzack said.

“You’re a farm girl?” Airachnid asked, half tempted to joke about it.

“Oh yes, my brother and I grew up there before the war,” Lyzack said, oblivious to the other bot’s disdain, “The Energon farms were so quiet back then. Have either of you ever been there?”

“No,” Airachnid said, “I was made in Iacon, as part of some type of prehensile initiative.” She shrugged at the subject.

“Huh, I was Forged after the war broke out, as part of Shockwave’s hunter program, what a joke,” Ser-Ket said.

“You can’t really think your birth was a joke do you?” Lyzack asked.

Ser-Ket’s reply was a smirk.

“Anyway it’s neat to see another Femme-con around here,” Airachnid said, “It’s just us and the general nowadays.”

“So, what do you guys do for fun?” Lyzack asked.

Airachnid smiled, “Business is pleasure, we have all sorts of prisoners who need to tell us about where their forces are.”

“Course, the fun part is making them talk,” Ser-Ket said.

Lyzack nodded, suddenly more uncomfortable around them. Under Deathsaurus, interrogations were, mostly, painless, Hellbat just needed to make Eye-Contact. Lyzack had witnessed several torture sessions, and she’d decided to steer clear of them long ago.

Lyzack saw that both Cons were staring at her, smiling those threatening insincere smiles that she’d seen on the faces of many a sadist. She took a step back, and immediately regretted it as the two had noticed.

“Oh come-on, don’t leave,” Ser-Ket said.

“Yeah, we just met you, what’s the matter, are you scared?” Airachnid said.

Lyzack noticed that both were drawing closer, and began to get more nervous.

Airachnid savored the unease on Lyzack’s face, and let out a laugh. The laugh was calculated, not to sound threatening, but to diffuse the situation. After all, a fight in the rec room would have the General ban their privileges, again.

Lyzack jumped slightly, but calmed down a bit. Airachnid patted her on the shoulder and said, “Calm down will ya, jeez.”

“You’re so jumpy,” Ser-Ket said, smirking.

Lyzack let out another nervous laugh, a habit, which she had been developing.

Airachnid and Ser-Ket left to go back to their post, successfully sizing up Lyzack.

Lyzack was left in the break room, and collapsed on one of the chairs.

“I just blew my first impression, great,” she muttered.

[Later]

Lyzack stood on the lower observation deck. The planet had 7 Twilight Elevators on it, each on top of a mine. An eighth twilight elevator and mine were being constructed. The Twilight elevators were high-speed elevators, long hollow shafts from the planets surface all the way up into the atmosphere. A small base sat on top of each, mostly consisting of a docking mechanism. Al-Jabr would dock at it, and the materials brought up on the elevator were collected, sometimes soldiers and more supplies were sent down. The Highspeeds made it impossible for most Organics to travel on them, and equipment had to be strapped down. There had been five separate occasions where the elevators were severely damaged, either by guerilla forces or the local Autobot unit. 

There existed a patrol at the top, two patrols around the shaft, and a base at the bottom where the entrance was protected, and the miners and slaves stayed. Lyzack was assigned to a unit to patrol the ground, and, because she was a flier, she would finish her tour of duty guarding the shaft. There were two miniature “stop” zones 1/3 of the way up, and 2/3 of the way up. These stations were where the fliers landed, to refuel, and the attending commander could analyze any materials sent up to that level for any bombs or terrorist activity. 

In addition to Al-Jabr, three Dreadnaught class Decepticon Battleships patrolled the space around it, occasionally docking at a Twilight Elevator to accept supplies, or to Al-Jabr itself, to exchange units or supplies.

In case of an emergency, the air-unit 1/3 of the way up, primary unit, had most of their troops scrambled for rapid response to the threat. Standard procedure was a bombing run, then letting the ground forces engage, while the air unit picked off any stragglers and assisted them. Secondary air unit split in half, with one half reinforcing the few troops left at the primary outpost, until the threat was handled. If the threat increased, they were to move to attack. If the threat went critical, Al-Jabr or another Dreadnaught was to dock at the Twilight elevator and deploy a response team. If the elevator didn’t work, reinforcement troops were dropped down to the planet, either in atmospheric entry armor (stripping them of their altmodes), or through smaller space-ships.

Much of this infrastructure and patrol/collection system was installed by Strika for a more efficient collection regimen, so far it was successful.  
Octane stood at the foyer, and looked down on Squad E, and looked back at his data-pad.

“Alright, you’re being deployed to site 4, ground unit,” Octane said, “You’re tour of duty will last for a month, after which, the airborne among you will be reassigned to primary aerial guard. You’re mission is to patrol the area around the mine in search of any threat, as usual.”

Lyzack had the mission briefing inside her processor. Squad E was divided into five teams of seven units. They patrolled five different sectors around Mine Sight 4. If they grew suspicious, they were to radio the sight’s command, with 4 threat levels. Disturbance: when they found something suspicious, Scout, where they found a scout party or single unit, Threat when they found a raiding party, and finally Assault, where a terrorist attack, or full frontal assault took place. The first alerted the command, the second had a small contingent sent, the third had a larger contingent sent. The fourth sent that contingent, and had a team of mining drones dig under the attackers, and launch a sneak attack with reinforcements. Third and fourth level threats brought down the primary aerial team.

“You know your missions, dismissed,” Octane said.

Lyzack went with the 6 other soldiers she’d been assigned to. Of note was a guardian robot was in each group. It was in it’s stocky form, but she’d seen a few before, growing into their tall investigative form, and then their heavy armored Battle form.

Al-Jabr had docked with the twilight Elevator for Mine Site number 4, and the 35 members of Squad E spread out over it.

There were 5 little shelters over the wide platform, where the squads entered, and found 10 seats in each bolted to the floor. Lyzack and her team sat in every seat, and put the harnesses on, magnetically attaching to the chairs. Windsweeper was polishing his seat before he sat on it. There were a few supplies outside of the shelters strapped or bolted onto the deck. Other Decepticons unloaded them, and when they had finished, Octane activated the lift and sent them all down.

The drop made them feel almost weightless; she felt the harness dig into her, as they dropped completely. The force exerted on her was pretty great, and she gritted her teeth down.

After a minute, she felt the elevator begin to slow. The Pressure decreased, and the elevator finally stopped. Octane’s voice came on over a speaker that Lyzack noticed was built into the shelter.  
“Final destination, everybody out,” 

Her colleagues and her left the shelter when the automatic door slid open. They crossed the deck; Lyzack noting the other departing troops doing the same.

She followed her teammates: The Guardian robot, a dune-buggy sniper named Hardtop, Windsweeper, a Vehicon car trooper named ARC-5, a grey action-master named Feargear, and they were lead by a Firecon named Sparkstalker.

The 7 arrived at a Dropship, which they boarded, and it flew them to their destination. When they arrived, the previous team boarded it, and flew back to base. 

They had landed in a mountainous sector, on top of a Mesa. Most mountains sat below them, but others appeared rising above the mesa, three rose up into the clouds. Lyzack looked around, there was a small hovel with a lookout tower here at the outpost.  
A portly drone hovered out to meet them, flanked by 2 diagnostic drones.

“Greetings Squad E Team 2, I am Deceptitran, I oversee outpost 2, I welcome you,” Deceptitran said.

“Indeed,” Sparkstalker said, then to his squad, “Alright, familiarize with the base, we move out in an hour.

Lyzack entered the facility, it was a small two story hovel. A large Access computer took up much of the bottom floor. There was a port that Deceptitran plugged into to observe and access the computer as well as recharge. There were similar ports where the Diagnostic drones recharged. 

The Second floor contained a ladder to the vantage point, as well as three energon distillers, where they were to recharge. All in all, there wasn’t much, so Hardtop struck up a conversation with Feargear.

“So Feargear, what’s it like not having an alt-mode?”

“It’s different, it’s like the feeling of transforming is gone, and I don’t even notice it. I’m faster and stronger than ever,” Feargear said.

“Do you miss your alt-mode?” Lyzack asked.

Feargear turned to her, “You’re the new girl, Lyzack right?” 

Lyzack nodded, her profile had been made common knowledge to all the Decepticons at the base, just like all of their profiles were at her disposal. They could tell she was new by the amount of days logged under her stay here.

“Well, I don’t miss it, not really, I just turned into a car, not that special,” Feargear said.

“Yeah, I always thought about the nucleon injection, I wonder what it’s like,” ARC-5 said.

The three were somewhat surprised at the Trooper’s insight, most of the Vehicons, called Genericons even by their comrades, were fairly taciturn and thought to be non-sentient. However, if they were kept in commission long enough, they start forming a personality. ARC-5 had several scars on him, repaired in all but the cosmetic level, to show off his battle prowess that kept him alive when all of the other Vehicons in his commission batch had passed on.

“I love to fly,” Lyzack said, “I wouldn’t give that up for the world.”

“Personally, I can’t imagine a life without an alt-mode, bonuses or not,” Hardtop said.

Feargear only shrugged.

Downstairs, Windsweeper was polishing the computer screen, and taking the keys off the computer to remove excess dust from behind them. Deceptitran was getting irritated at it.

Sparkstalker received a call from Shockblast, their commanding officer who was on team 1.

Shockblast was a tall Decepticon, his legs and shoulders were treads, his right hand had three claws on instead of fingers, and his left was a huge canon. and his face was a black slab with a single green eye. He had horns going up from the slab and a green and purple color scheme.

“The other teams have radioed in their placement, you may begin your patrol when ready,” Shockblast said before terminating the call.

Sparkstalker never expected much conversation from the Squad E leader, and simply went back inside.

“Squad E Team 2, assemble,” Sparkstalker barked.

The 6 bots lined themselves up outside.

“We’re going out for patrol now, Hardtop, you are to remain on the lookout tower here and are to alert us for any and all disturbances,” Sparkstalker said.

“Yes sir,” Hardtop said.

“Lyzack and Windsweeper, you are to fly reconnaissance around the perimeter, alert us to anything important.”

“Yes sir,” they said.

“And Windsweeper, don’t go firing at dirt clumps, please,” Sparkstalker said, annoyance on his face from all the times Windsweeper was assigned under him. “Everyone else will patrol with me, dismissed.” 

With that, he turned, and walked towards the nearest hill edge, and descended it followed by ARC-5, Feargear and the Guardian, which had turned into look-out mode.

Lyzack and Windsweeper took to the skies transforming and flying off towards the nearest mountain.

Hardtop went back into the hovel and climbed up onto the outpost.  
He worked the controls like he had done for all the other outposts he’d been assigned to during his time here, this one included.

The top detached from the base, it rose up and ascended 100 yards into the air, where he took out his binoculars and scanned the horizon and nearby mountains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mostly used to set up procedure and exposition.
> 
> Hardtop: Transformers Cybertron body
> 
> Feargear: Generic grey body with few signs of alt-mode
> 
> Sparkstalker: Stocky G1 body
> 
> Deceptitran: G1 body
> 
> ARC-5: Purple Decepticon Trooper from Transformers Prime
> 
> Guardian robot: from Fall of Cybertron.
> 
> Shockblast: Transformers Energon Body.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Arrival

Acid-Storm and Mixmaster each sat adjacent to a large acid-proof black cauldron. Mixmaster added a new chemical and the pot bubbled, casting them both in green light (the room’s lights were dimmed for effect).

Mixmaster and Acid-Storm let out a mad cackle at their newest concoction. They then stopped when they remembered that they had no idea what it was.

[Elsewhere]

On Nebulos: Thrust sprinted through the street, his left wing lying several blocks away, shrapnel having torn it off. Bombs exploded a building far ahead of him, raining debris down on the street.

A Large tank driven by the Nebulon’s followed him, firing another shell at him, and eviscerating a mall. 

Thrust continued to run, before the tank was shot to pieces. Standing triumphant in the wreckage was Triggerhappy, wielding a newly upgraded gun, which he claimed was piloted by a nebulon. Thrust didn’t trust anything from someone as crazy as Triggerhappy.

[Elsewhere]

On Earth: Starscream was giving a grandiose speech which Viewfinder was broadcasting, missing his twins and wondering how they were doing. Viewfinder was snapped back from his musing by Starscream’s continued talking.

Dirge had lead a bombing on an Autobot Refinery, and Starscream had just captured numerous resources for the underwater base.

[Elsewhere]

On Cybertron: Thundercracker lead a raid on a temporary Autobot Facility, he took prisoners, and got pissy when Straxus had them tossed into the smelting pool.

[Elsewhere]

On a Ship in space: Slipstream was having none of the amazing adventures. She’d spent a week on this trip, with it accidently blowing an engine and needing a repair.

She would be arriving at Al-Jabr in another week.

She sighed, and wondered how this new assignment would play out. Al-Jabr was pretty remote, but Megatron’s General of Destruction ran it.

Slipstream was pretty surprised to see one of the most elite Decepticons was in charge of a mining operation. 

Strika’s position was up there with Onslaught, Razorclaw, Obsidian, Hun-Grr, Bludgeon, and Deathsaurus. She was a member of the Conclave, which comprised of those high ranking cons. She’d brought ruination to an entire Star-system and conquered it in the name of the Decepticon Empire.

Now, she was in charge of a resource gathering outpost. Slipstream always suspected someone like Deathsaurus or Onslaught would run those, maybe Hun-Grr, though he would probably consume more resources than were mined.

Slipstream also knew Strika as a merit based General, your position and accomplishments outside her unit didn’t matter, she only gave you position based on your achievements under her command.

Slipstream saw this as an inconvenience because she was on one of the most elite Decepticon teams in the army, however, due to the events that lead up to their disbandment, she probably wouldn’t get much with that on her resume, even less when she recalled that Strika hated Starscream. With that in mind, she supposed it was a good thing that the general went for Tangible Objectivity.

The shuttle was full of soldiers, vehicon drones: ground, air and miners. Slipstream saw them being used more and more, their production had greatly increased, using the resources gathered, and it was rumored, and Slipstream shuddered at the thought, fallen Decepticons and Autobots. They could be slaughtered by the dozens, but enough could overrun the enemy, and Slipstream had seen it being done before. They also had a tendency to be more loyal than the average con. 

During her time on the ship, Slipstream found that the newly made troopers weren’t much for conversation, and got bored until they arrived. She did manage to talk to a few other passengers: There was one diagnostic droid that seemed particularly chatty about battles, questioning the strategy displayed by Hun-Gur in the battle for the sunny planet Thrush. Hun-Gur’s plan was one of endurance, as his base was a solar powered defense fortress. He was on about the time it took to win the war as Hun-Gur held that place for decades before victory. 

Slipstream also conversed with Flamefeather, who was considerably less eloquent, and got pissed at a trooper for brushing up against him. He proceeded to rip of said trooper’s arm and clobber him to death with it.

The ship finally docking was a mercy, she bid good-bye to the drone and went up to the guy in charge, Octane.

Octane looked up at her from his data-pad. He always oversaw loading and unloading, and always pointed the new guests to where they should go. He directed Slipstream and Flamefeather to Strika’s office, and had the rest of the troopers follow him for assignment. The Diagnostic Drone he sent off to data processing.

The two went into Strika’s office, and were ordered to enter. Each was given a code to scan which gave them access to the data banks as well as the bios of their coworkers. Strika gave them the run down and their assignments and assigned them to, thankfully different, rooms.

Slipstream was dismissed, having to report for duty tomorrow.

She arrived at her room, she assumed that it was like all the others, a data port, some shelves and two recharge slabs. Curiously, she didn’t have a roommate.

Slipstream went off to explore the vessel.

[On Decaboid]:

Hardtop alerted the team to a set of natives climbing across a mountain range. 

The Natives were biomechanical, having scaly orange skin augmented with cybernetics. Their faces had a mess of wires protruding from the back, and three small red optics on one side, as well as a large organic eye on the other. 

It was a team of five, each holding a blaster, probably hoping to put up some sort of resistance.

Lyzack and Windsweeper were ordered to ignore it and keep patrolling, in case it was only a diversion, while Sparkstalker lead his team to confront them.

They snuck to an adjacent cliff, and waited for Sparkstalker to give the order. He transmitted the Okay, and Hardtop fired a single shot from his rifle across the distance, hitting the leader in the side of the head. The head exploded in a mass of goo, sparks, flesh, and metal. 

The Members were surprised, and even more surprised when the Guardian unleashed a barrage of missiles at the party.

The explosion killed a native, and severely wounded the other three.

One native lay on the ground, one tried to flee, and another fired a shot off at the Decepticon’s direction. The shot hit the cliff edge and burned a hole into it. The fleeing native was felled by a sniper bullet to the chest, and ARC-5 opened fire the one who had shot at them, killing him as well.

The four got to the cliff ledge and stared at the final member, his leg hung, bloody and useless, shrapnel from the grenade requiring amputation to help him.

He stared up at them with his one functioning mechanical eye, as the organic one and the other mechanical two had been permanently blinded by the blast.

“So, we got ourselves a prisoner then,” Sparkstalker said, ordering Feargear to take the wounded Decaboidian back to the shelter. 

He did so, and Sparkstalker went over to the one that ARC-5 had killed.

He took a few cords out from his arm and plugged them into the helmet. A while ago, Sparkstalker had hacked their communication network, and Strika had lead several successful strikes against the populace, it got him promoted to team leader. After that incident their communication network was defunct (as they stopped using it), and they transferred messages the old fashion way.

Sparkstalker listened to the recorded memories of the Decaboidian. He skipped over the boring parts, how this Decaboidian had a family, how his daughter had been dying after Decepticon blaster fire had crippled her, and how after losing her he joined a resistance. Sparkstalker examined the memories after that, but was dismayed to learn that it was only the five of them that sought out to stop them in what was probably a suicide mission.

He unplugged himself and ordered the two near him to leave the bodies.

The surviving member was brought to the diagnostic drones to repair, or rather remove all the damage and replace it with more cyber parts, he was shipped out on a transport to the Twilight elevator, to be taken aboard a ship and interrogated.

Lyzack and Windsweeper were informed of the happenings, and they continued their patrol.

Lyzack asked Windsweeper “Hey, what do you think about -- about all of this?”

“All of what?” Windsweeper asked.

“The occupation?” Lyzack asked.

“They’re a disgusting partially organic species, what’s there to think about. We’re just gathering resources here, and then we move on to the next one.” Windsweeper said.

“I-I suppose,” Lyzack said.

X

Slipstream had missed the assignment giving, so she was placed on an aerial squad patrolling the space around the ship.

X

With the month over, their patrol had finished, there were no other alarms after the first, and Squad E Team 2 was heading home.

“I’m telling you guys, Earth is great, I really hope I get assigned there again,” Hardtop said, “They’ve got so many comics there, so much escapist media, so much fiction.”

“Huh, but it’s infested with organics,” Feargear said, “I don’t them to be crawling over me.”

“Maybe you could get a transfer to Mars, though it’s kinda lonely,” Hardtop said, “Thundercracker and I were stuck there for almost a year with a bunch of drones. We spent the time watching Earth Television, marvelous stuff.”

“I think the Organics are making you go soft in the head,” ARC-5 said.

Hardtop merely shrugged and said, “Organic or not, it beats watching old war vids and Decepticon Propaganda.”

“Any of you guys been to Hedonia?” Sparkstalker asked, “Wonderful place to take a vacation.”

“Yeah,” Feargear said, “You see those waitress bot’s, they go around without any chest plates, I’m tellin you, it’s hot.”

Lyzack cocked her head and gave him a confused look, “What does that mean?”

“It means they get all sorts of dirt and bacteria into their circuits from all the organics and grime on that planet. Also, If you spill drinks on them they short out,” Windsweeper said.

“That’s unfortunate,” Lyzack said, still confused at the practice.

“I went there to get away from the idiots that were my old team, and I kid you not, my migraines have vanished completely.” Sparkstalker said, “They had these delightful molten steel baths, my-my just thinking about them makes me feel better.”

The conversation of assignments and vacation spots continued until their ship docked at the base and they caught the Twilight elevator to the Primary air-base. Windsweeper, Lyzack and several other troops disembarked, and a few troops got on, and the elevator continued up.

Lyzack and Winsweeper reported to the officer in charge of Primary Aerial patrol at the Site 4 Elevator. He was red Decepticon jet named Airwave.

The base was a platform around the circumference of the elevator. It was a large ring around the end, 4 stories in height, with the third story having a large circular runway sticking out for the fliers.

Lyzack also noticed several helicopter drones and others with hovering alt-modes. She concluded that the lack of elevation made them more useful for stationary attacks or pursuing ground based targets. Among these hovering Alt-Modes was Airachnid, who turned to her and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Airwave looks like his G1 self, but not a micromaster.
> 
> Viewfinder looks like his G1 cartoon self, but with his toys shoulder pads, so he looks like his IDW self.


	6. Chapter 6

Space-flight was different from air flight. Some would say that air flight caused more drag, others would say they appreciated the alien skies and wind across their sleek frames. Slipstream appreciated flight for what it was, freedom. Freedom from confinement on the ground, forever meant to walk on the barren surface of some world, unable to see over the mountain tops. Thundercracker once said he'd shoot himself in the optic before he'd choose a ground alt-mode. Slipstream appreciated the dimensions to the air, and to space, she felt like she could go anywhere, be it to the next planet, or along the patrol path she'd been given.

She'd met Shockblast when he'd gotten off his command of the Squad E. He informed them that he would be leading them as the space-patrol commander. Slipstream was surprised at his appearance, he looked so similar to Shockwave, and he was a product of the Decepticlone program. Shockwave, being one of the smartest and most powerful of Decepticons, had initiated the cloning program with Bomshell and Deluge. Shockwave was the original template, Slipstream would have suspected it was some sort of vanity on his part, but any suspicions like that would prove hollow, upon actually meeting the purple cycloptic con.

Shockblast could lead both ground and space forces because he was a triple changer, he could convert into both a tank and a satellite. Triple-changing was another thing that fascinated Slipstream, though apparently it was something one was born into.

There was another Shockwave clone who resided here, Chugway. Chugway was a tall grey broad shouldered bot, who turned into a tank. His treads resided on his legs and shoulders, and his face was a blank slate, bar the large red eye. He had two horns upon his head. He resided at the mining facility under construction.

Slipstream pushed the thoughts of cloning out of her mind, and focused on the task at hand. She was in a team of ten jet-fighters, placed under the control of Fearswoop, an orange cycloptic jet. They were performing rounds on their patrol route, every so often, Fearswoop, and the commanders of the other space patrols would report to Shockblast, who was currently orbiting the planet, large cannon pointed down, in case his use as a Kill-Sat was ever needed. He compiled all the reports in his fast computing AI brain, one of the benefits of him being a clone of Shockwave, to note whenever there was disturbances and how to respond in kind.

"This was boring legwork, meant for low-class grunts," was Slipstream's first thought.

"This beats Starscream's command any day," was her second thought, and one which got her through these monotonous patrols.

Her mind turned towards former days, one time she remembered Starscream put a pressure bomb in Megatron's command chair on the Nemesis telling no one. When it exploded, she was impaled on a piece of shrapnel and blacked out. Upon waking up she had been informed that Megatron had his skid plate blown up and he was pissed. She also found out that the idea was Skywarp's that Starscream had taken as his own. Starscream was placed on a mission considered suicide, and the Seekers were given the ignoble task of scraping space-barnacles off the side of the Nemesis. It was a grueling and menial Job, and Slipstream liked to fantasize about Starscream getting torn apart by whatever danger was on his mission. Such fantasies were disproven, and they were back flying missions under the air-commander again.

Lyzack flew by transformed and landed on the runway. Half of the allotted time she was supposed to be on Primary aerial duty was completed. There was more action here, than on the outpost. Calls to the outposts, to the mining sites, and to where other Patrols were in trouble. They had come into conflict with the natives three times. The second had yielded an Autobot among their quarry. He had been taken up in the elevator to Al-Jabr.

Lyzack crossed the runway to the dwelling. She saw Airachnid leaning against the doorway, the spider-copter beckoned her over.

Airachnid always seemed to have an unnerving smirk or smile, and Lyzack would admit that she felt disconcerted in her presence.

"Well well, patrol as uneventful as ever?" Airchanid asked.

"Yes, nothing to report," Lyzack said, trying to meet Airachnid with a smile that she hoped didn't make her look nervous.

"You know what I do when I get bored?" Airachnid asked.

Lyzack shook her head in response.

"I'll show you after my shift," Airachnid said.

She went to leave, but then she leaned in, uncomfortably close, Lyzack noted, and put her mouth near to Lyzack's audio receptor.

"Meet me on the lowest deck, near the drop hatch by generator one, when your recharge cycle is done, you better not tell anyone," Airachnid whispered.

She smiled, and walked away to where the helicopter alt-mode Cons were assembling to be deployed.

Lyzack returned to her block. It was smaller, than the one on Al-Jabr, but still meant for 2, and she still shared it with Windsweeper.

She entered to find him cleaning, as usual.

His flip out guns seemed to have a flip out scrubber and water jet on them, as he was furiously polishing the walls.

"Filth, I hate these Air-Patrol blocks, all the planets particles, ugh," he muttered to himself.

He didn't seem to notice Lyzack, who quietly walked over to her recharge slab, and began her recharge cycle.

She was quietly mulling over her own thoughts. She hadn't really talked to anyone since she got here, outside of her team, Ser-Ket, and Airachnid. The latter of whom seemed to like her, at least. In-spite of all the foreboding and general creepiness, Airachnid exuded, she seemed nice enough. First-impressions weren't everything, she remembered that from working with Deathsaurus's troops, they seemed gruff and violent, but they were pretty okay to hang around, during down-time.

As such she was willing to give Airachnid a chance. She turned to her roommate, who was busy trying to polish the shiny surface of his recharge slab.

"Are you going to use it?" she asked him.

"I will not risk a transfer of dirt particles," Windsweeper said.

"You've cleaned every inch of this room," Lyzack said.

"And you entered the clean-zone with your-outside contaminants," Windsweeper said, "Besides, Germs and dirt are microscopic, it's really hard to kill them."

He proceeded to go back to his cleaning, and Lyzack was left alone with her thoughts, and the oddly rhythmic scrubbing.

She finished her cycle early, and left for the break room, Windsweeper having cleaned the recharge slab to his liking, and slumped onto it, exhausted.

The air patrol base did not have a break room, soldiers instead hung out on the take-off platform, sitting around on random metal crates and boxes, or dangling their legs over the side. Lyzack found a place of to the side and sat down cross-legged. She saw a group of fliers having pulled their crates into a circle, and happily chatting about something.

As with many group dynamics, she was hesitant to join. Hesitant to try and approach them, meekly start a conversation, and just have people look at her weirdly. They could probably pick up on her hesitance, and, depending on the situation, the Decepticon army didn't look too kindly on hesitation. If she talked to them, what would they think of her? Would she be too presumptuous if she talked to them? She imagined approaching a conversation and saying something wrong, something that could potentially seen as treason.

She resigned herself to these possibilities, and resolved to sit on her own, with her own thoughts for company.

She thought of her brother again, she wondered how he was doing. When she'd left, Deathsaurus was arranging them for some combiner project. Combiners were all the rage it seemed. She hoped he was all right.

She stared out at the mountains, some of the tips were at eye-level with the platform, but most were below it. The view was good she admitted.

Her internal time-keeper told her that it was around the time her normal cycle would have ended, so she withdrew from the platform and headed to the lowest level.

The lowest level only had a few recharge rooms, the rest were occupied by maintenance equipment and power generators for the outpost. There were a few hatches for easy access to leave or enter the underside of the outpost. Hover type Decepticons used them the most.

She leaned against generator one, and stared at the deployment hatch. Cycles crept by slowly, and Lyzack was beginning to think Airachnid wasn't going to show.

"Calm down Lyzack, it hasn't been that long… maybe she forgot?" Lyzack thought to herself, "Maybe she just had to do some work for the commander… maybe she just let time slip away. Or maybe she doesn't want to meet me? Maybe this is was just some annoying obligation to her, to show the rookie around? Maybe it's all just a prank, maybe it's a hazing… maybe she's just luring me off to kill me?"

Lyzack banged her head against the generator to dispel the thoughts.

"Now you've hurt yourself… idiot," she thought.

The cycles continued to creep on, when she heard a knocking on the hatch.

It was opened, and six legs came from the hold, each bracing themselves against the floor and lifting Airachnid up. She smiled her, still, off-putting smile.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to do some cleaning," Airachnid said.

"No no, it's fine," Lyzack said.

"Great, you ready to go then?" Airachnid asked.

Lyzack nodded, and Airachnid lowered herself down.

Lyzack followed her and landed on a ring shaped platform that went around the perimeter of the underside of the base. There were some gangplanks where the fliers leapt off from and flew. Airachnid had switched to her two normal legs and strolled over to one, beckoning her.

She hopped of the side and converted to her helicopter mode, Lyzack following her.

She flew after the helicopter, careful not to outpace her slower alt-mode.

Airachnid flew past the base to one of the canyons adjacent to the Twilight Elevator.

Lyzack flew after her, as they kept low to the canyon's floor. They passed numerous out stretched rocks and flew around at least two mesas. Lyzack transformed to robot mode and looked behind her, the vast cylindrical structure of the Twilight Elevator extended through the cloudless night up into the sky. The lights flashed, illuminating the steel marvel, a testament to the Decepticon Empire.

Lyzack turned back to Airachnid and flew after her. They travelled a bit more before setting down by a cave out of the way.

Airachnid transformed, and Lyzack landed next to her.

"Here we are," Airachnid said, and beckoned her in.

Lyzack walked after her and glanced up as she entered the cave, Stalactites hung above them, some webbing substance which she attributed to Airachnid, having read her file, hung from them.

Lyzack followed her deeper into the cave. They stepped over a number of rocks, and got onto a trodden path. Lyzack began noticing claw marks on the walls, there were scorch marks from laser blasts and burns where acid hat met rock. She could see fluids, Decabodian blood perhaps, scattered on various walls.

There were some broken Stalagmites on the ground, finger indentations on one end and fluids on another… they seemed to be improvised bludgeons.

Lyzack gripped her arm uneasily, taking note that they'd long since gotten out of view of the exit.

"I love this little place, I've got one near most of the Twilight Elevators, somewhere out of the way me or Ser-Ket can go when we need to blow off steam." Airachnid said over her shoulder.

They passed a particularly damaged area, the dirt was tossed, the rocks were in pieces, and numerous laser and acid burns lined the wall.

"That was a fun little row," Airachnid said, "Idiot never even stood a chance."

Lyzack's optics darted all along the cave, it didn't take her long to see the webbing everywhere, an arm, Decabodian, hung from the cave ceiling.

Lyzack cringed, and really hoped Airachnid didn't notice.

Then she saw the bodies.

There was a few, strung out on webbing, acid-burns, laser burns, slashes, cuttings, and much more.

One Decabodian had several stalagmites and stalactites sticking out of its chest.

Another was hung from the ceiling, a leg missing, numerous burns all over the arms, several nasty but non-fatal puncture wounds on its torso. It suffered.

Lyzack winced, killing was one thing, but torture was something she stayed far away from. When her team could glean anything by the words "Sleep, Hypnosis, Hibernation;" Tasers, electro-pliers, and endoscopic claws, weren't necessary.

"You are such a weakling," she thought to herself, "They're inferior technorganic races, they deserve… what happened to the five at the outpost? Is that it?"

She shook her head, wanting these doubts to go away.

Airachnid stopped and gestured to one of the Decabodians, there were so many lining the cave, disemboweled, torn, long since dried fluids and burnt out circuitry lay at their feet, but this one was different.

It's arms were bound with web leading up to the ceiling, it's legs hung uselessly, broken ankles with toes, some (like the fingers) missing, brushing off the ground.

There were acid burns all along its body, and a deep whole on the shoulder, caused by a laser blast, which severed some tendons and a servo connector. The right arm was as good as dead.

The creature's head was awful, an optic hang from a stalk out of the right side. There was two optics on the left, one was missing and the other cracked. Numerous wires hung out of a long wound on the side of its head, almost to the neck.

That wasn't the worst part, the worst part was when the eyes flicked to life. They glowed a dim blue, one on the left, and the one hanging off on the right.

"This is Tar-3, a stupid little Decabodian who wandered too far from his little village into the badlands," Airachnid cooed, "I found him and thought it only hospitable to bring him here."

"Too your torture chamber," Lyzack said and then thought, "I hope that didn't sound too accusatory, or confrontational, oh god she could string me up like him if she get's peeved."

"Recreational Chamber," Airachnid corrected, stepping aside, "This is the only one still alive, so many have come by here lately, so I've had to stretch this one out for a bit. I was going to leave him here, let him starve, or do whatever technorganics do if they don't get enough sustenance, but then I wouldn't get to see that."

The creature moved its mouth, letting out a hollow sound that may have passed for a moan.

Lyzack successfully resisted another shudder, she should have been proud of herself.

She did start when she felt Airachnid laid her hands on her shoulders from behind.

Airachnid splayed out her fingers and brought her head close to Lyzack's optic receptor.

"Come on," she whispered, Lyzack noting the tone in her voice, "I'll let you finish this poor little evolutionary reject off. Consider it a little present, I really want to get to see what you can do."

Airachnid's fingers crept over Lyzack's shoulders, her thumb raked lightly over Lyzack's neck.

"I-I'm sorry Airachnid, I.." Lyzack began, "You what?" she thought, "You're being given a gift by one of the few people you've even bothered to talk to and now you're going to refuse it to their face? Just kill it, what the hell kind of Decepticon are you?"

"I'm flattered and all, but-"

"Eh, no sweat," Airachnid said, and one of her back limbs shot forward impaling the Decabodian in the chest.

It let out a scream, and went limp.

Airachnid felt Lyzack shudder under her fingertips, and her lips curled into a smile.

"Good old fashioned Con fundamentals, eh?" she said.

"Y-yeah," Lyzack said.

Airachnid slid her fingers off of Lyzack's shoulders, dragging the tips along them. The acid dispenser in her right ring finger activated for a short bit, and left a slight burn on the green steel.

"Listen, I've got a good feeling about you," Airachnid said, "That's why I'm gonna let you use this place. The job can get very stressful, and sometimes we just need to kick back and put some technorganics back into their place. If we ever get assigned to another Twilight elevator, I'll be sure to show you the nearby caves. What do you say?"

Lyzack stared at her and thought "Well, say something… do it! Just say yes, she went out of her way, probably risked getting caught by a superior to show you this… abomination. - That scream, oh god that scream, - oh my god you are such a poor Decepticon, it was just an organic, it died, boo-hoo. - Think rationally, you're alone, no one from the base knows you're here with her, she offs you – no no no, that's just paranoia –what's that?"

She had that last thought while looking at a stain on one of the walls. Most walls were stained with yellow-green blood of the Decabodians, but this stain was a pinkish purple, similar to the energon that ran through them.

Airachnid followed her gaze and found the suspicious stain.

"Oh god, that," she said, chuckling, "You won't believe it, one of these things got free and managed to stab me, the results of that encounter you saw on you're way in, the one with the sharp rocks in 'em."

"Oh, okay. I like this place and all, Airachnid, but I don't think I'd use it, sorry," Lyzack said, "Yes," she thought "You said that without a stutter or looking stupid, you ungrateful little-"

"It's alright," Airachnid said, interrupting her thoughts, "Some people just don't have the circuits for it."

"Like you," Lyzack's thoughts accused herself.

"Ah, well, just thought I'd show you around, torture, no torture, it's fine," Airachnid said, Lyzack was trying to guess if her tone was bitter, disappointed, or, possibly, mocking?

Airachnid turned to leave, Lyzack followed suit. They exited the cave, transformed and flew back to base. Lyzack's thoughts wandered back to that same purple stain on the wall, was it really Airachnid's blood?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chugway is based on Animated Shockwave's grey form. I originally called him Laserwave, but since I'm gonna have more clones, I don't want to run out of Shockwave related names, and Chugway, I can't just turn that name down.
> 
> Fearswoop is based on the Live Action Michael Bay design.


	7. Chapter 7

"-And, using the Autobots own position at the edge of Inkursian territory, against them, General Obsidian managed to box the Autobot's starships and allied planet system against both the Decepticons and Inkursian empire's gunships. The Autobot's were fighting on two fronts, and they were ultimately worn down, General Wing Saber conceded and-"

Hardtop droned out the dreary War video playing in the rec-room, and reclined on an easy chair, happily engrossed in his comic.

Nekomimi A and B were on another adventure to stop Pickles the evil Purple Griffin, in this issue they find out he wasn't that evil, just misunderstood.

He heard the door open and Fear-Gear walked in.

"You still read that scrap? I'm fairly sure it's for human children," he said.

Hardtop didn't look up from his comic and replied, "I've seen the Holo-pulps you read, and you sir, have no right to judge."

"Fair enough," Fear-gear said. "Anything good on?"

"War propaganda," Hardtop replied, not looking up from his comic.

"Ah well, we're to show up at the docking platform in a few minutes, we've got a supply of equipment coming in that we're supposed to oversee."

"Alright," Hardtop closed his comic, and pulled a vacuumed sealed comic sleeve, from the compartment on his back, placed the comic in it (near-mint), sealed it, and put it back in his compartment.

He cot up, and retrieved his rifle, leaning on the side of the sofa, and followed Fear-Gear out.

"Check this out," the action-master said.

He opened up two compartments on his hips and retrieved two knuckle attachments with blades protruding from them. They magnetized to his knuckles and held fast.

"Extra punch," he said, swinging out a hook for added emphasis.

Hardtop nodded and continued walking. He thought Fear-Gear was being preposterous, what good were knuckle enhancements if he could put a bullet through his eyes before he even got within spitting distance.

"Hey, I'm trying to get a hold of some nucleon shock gauntlets," Fear-Gear said, "You think your brother could hook me up?"

Hardtop rolled his optics suppressed a grimace at the thought of his oily brother Swindle, "Maybe, I'll ask if I see him, but it ain't gonna be cheap."

"I can pay," Fear-Gear said.

"Sure," Hardtop said sarcastically, "Heh, you should meet him, you've got the same taste in literature."

It was Fear-Gear's turn to roll his optics.

They walked into the docking bay, to find Chugway ordering them into position. They took up stances with 12 other bots on either side of the docking station as the ship came in.

The ship's commanding officer, Warmonger, disembarked and walked up to Octane and handed him a data pad.

"Alright, ship's manifest, 8 Dark Matter containers, Giga Sized, reinforced hulls to avoid detection, as ordered."

Octane looked at the data pad, and pressed confirm. The pad scanned his CNA and approved the transaction.

"Alright, unload it," Octane yelled at some worker bots.

The workers, repurposed Miner vehicons, strode up with a treaded forklift apparatus and began unloading the large Crates. Each was the size of a scout ship.

A few of the ship's occupants disembarked and mingled with the guards.

"What do you think's in those things?" Fear-Gear asked Hardtop.

Hardtop shrugged, curiosity was an oft-ignored attribute in the Decepticon hierarchy, people who displayed it were either annoying or tended to go missing if they annoyed the right people.

"I'll tell you what," said one con, Hardtop and Fear-Gear turned to face him.

"The name's Dealer," he said, he was a large bot, alt-mode kibble indicated a gun barrel, treads, cockpit and wings, so Triple Changer then. His color scheme was a swath of blues and whites.

"As for the cargo, the real answer is, we don't unknown."

Fear-Gear let out a groan.

"We were just told to carry it, no questions outside of High-Command."

"Hmm," Hardtop said, "Wonder if it's for the mines."

"Dunno, but I do know that even the General isn't even allowed to open these things," Dealer said.

That surprised both of them, these orders must have come from real high up then, perhaps from the Big 3, or Megatron himself?

"What's in the box, what ever could it be?" Dealer said in a sing-song voice, "The suspense is killing me."

"Dealer, I need you over here," Warmonger yelled.

Dealer left the guards and went over to Warmonger.

Hardtop and Fear-Gear were left with Questions.

When the unloading was finished, the ship was transferred to the hanger, Warmonger and his crew were to remain until the cases were opened and their contents taken out, after which they would transfer the containers to where they were needed next (these undetectable crates weren't common and were in high demand).

Fear-Gear and Hardtop were dismissed, along with Laserwave and the rest of the guards.

Fear-Gear and Hardtop walked away,

"So much mystery, so much intrigue," Fear-Gear said.

"Now, you're even sounding like the holo-pulp," Hardtop said.

"But aren't you curious about what's in those big black containers?"

"No, I'm not, I don't care, they could be planet busters, or weapons, or energon, or a prisoner, or dismembered limbs, or they could just be empty, a gift from Starscream to prank Strika. Whatever it is, I don't give," Hardtop said.

Fear-Gear was about to reply when he saw a number of Autobot prisoners, in shackles, being lead by a few Vehicons to the brig.

"Hey, hold up," Fear-Gear said, jogging up to the posse.

Fear-Gear went up to the Autobot at the front of the line and looked him over. He was a boxy red bot with a car alt-mode and flames, seriously, what was it with flames and bots?

"Get Torqued," the bot said.

Fear-Gear wasn't listening, and brought up his fist. Fast as a Battle-Charger he threw a punch and buried his spiked knuckle into the bot's chest.

His enhanced fist tore through the flame decal and plunged through the armor, severing his primary fuel pump.

Fear-Gear with drew his fist and turned to Hardtop, "You see that?" he asked, excited. "Extra Punch, what did I tell you?"

"Fine, fine, you made your point," Hardtop said.

Fear-Gear and Hardtop continued on their walk to the Rec room, regardless of this little distraction.

"You-You animal!" shouted the Autobot behind the first one, now on his knees and leaking vital energon.

"He'll die, you son of a gl-"

One of the Vehicons clubbed the shouting bot with his gun arm. "Shut up and keep moving," he said.

The guard at the front roughly dragged the fallen Autobot to his feet and pulled him along toward the brig. The Autobot staggered, only to be jerked back in line, he retracted his mouth plate and began coughing up blood.

"He needs a medic," the bot behind him said.

The same guard, who hit him, roughly elbowed him in the back, "I said shut up."

The prisoners journey to the brig was uneventful after that, as was Hardtop and Fear-Gear's return to their recreation room.

The War propaganda was still playing

"- And the arrival of General Onslaught's forces allowed for Razorclaw's surviving troops to retreat, and thus the disastrous invasion of the planet Skarro was abandoned-"

Hardtop slumped back down on his recliner, and retrieved his comic from his back compartment. Fear-Gear stored his attachments and pulled up the latest book in the "SparkBeat" series, and began to read it. Strika had always scheduled off-days in their calendars, wherein they would only be called for minor things, and both intended to make the most of their down time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warmonger: G1 body
> 
> Dealer: Thrilling 30 DoubleDealer body.
> 
> The guy punched was G2 Volt, in his original body, the Autobot behind him was Leadfoot, IDW body


	8. Chapter 8

The twilight elevator jerked to a stop, and Lyzack waited in her seat for the announcement to disembark. When it came, she unstrapped herself from the harness and left the shelter.

All the other groups were doing the same. Lyzack caught a glimpse of Airachnid, who winked at her before disappearing in the crowd.

Lyzack would exercise greater care to avoid her and Ser-Ket from then on.

She accessed the data prerogative downloaded from her scan on her first day. The following week was considered "Off" for her, barring some monitor duty and space patrols under a commander called Terradive.

She headed to her room, finding it in the same state as she left it. Her data-cube was still on its shelf, she retrieved it and deposited it in a compartment on her leg. No sense leaving her stuff around, Windsweeper wasn't the issue (unless he decided to clean it and accidently erased the contents, or maybe he'd purposely erase them to clean the hard drive), but someone could take it, her weapons to, best keep them on.

You're being too paranoid.

She ignored the thought and left, hoping to explore the station some more.

She passed the recharge rooms, her servers identifying whom they belonged to. She passed the waste disposal room, wherein their garbage was ejected on certain cycles to burn up in the planet's atmosphere.

She passed a power generator, which was currently being attended to by two Diagnostic Drones. There were numerous generators located all over the station, in case of an outage, power wouldn't permanently be lost, and sabotage was made all the harder by all the potential targets for power. The weaponry ran on a different generator than the others, as did command power. This generator was for the all the rooms on this floor. Each generator had two recharge sockets for diagnostic drones built in them, the drones would perform maintenance on them to keep them at proper working order.

Power was supplied by both solar panels located on Al-Jabr as well as the Forensite mined from the planet below. One of the Diagnostic Drones waved at her and she smiled and waved back.

She passed the medical room. Numerous cryochambers glowed on the walls, fixing soldiers wounded in various scuffles on the planet, or stupid enough to run into space debris.

The station medic, Flatline, was bent over a Vehicon, two vestigial arms unfolded from his stomach and manifested lasers, cutting away damaged armor. She continued to watch the procedure as she passed, unknowingly colliding with another soldier. Whoever it was, was large and stable, and she was knocked on her back.

"Sorry," the bot said.

Lyzack looked up, he was a tall broad bot, twin cannons sprung from his back, and spikes from a plow stood on his shoulders.

"Are you okay?" he said.

A bot with both tank and jet kibble stood next to him, he rolled his optics and jabbed the offending bot in the arm.

"Uh, I mean, watch where you're going next time," the bot said, trying to put on a tougher voice.

Lyzack got back on her feet, apologized, and walked around them, averting her eyes.

She caught the tail-end of their conversation.

"You gotta be meaner Torca, none of this apologizing scrap,"

"Sorry, Dealer" he said.

What a strange duo she thought, walking away.

She arrived at recreation room 2, which was moderately crowded.

This Rec-room was the biggest of all of them. There were a number of tables, recliners and sofas. Three large Tv's were set up, two with a table and chairs around them, and a third by a bar.

Conversation was fairly lively, and she could only hear snippets of what everyone was saying.

"- and he's just lying their, gasping, and Fearswoop and I were just laughing, because, this little piston licker honestly thinks we're not going to put one in his cranium? The little scraplet was just begg-"

"Three guys, I tell you, there's three guys called Dreadwing. What's up with that name? I bet it's because it has dread in it, and they want to be all dark and mysterious amiright?"

"Ain't there four guys? Oh wait, that's Dreadwind."

"-and then the guy says, who needs anemone!"

"I don't get it,"

"It's a fish pun, jeez."

"What the hell is a fish?"

She walked up to the bar, and asked for a glass of coolant. The bartendant, a bulky Vehicon with three large oil drums on its back, poured her a glass. She thanked him and walked off.

The TV by the bar was playing an old Mecha soccer game, and one of the Vehicons on a stool was shouting at it.

She heard the Announcer say:

"And Krok passes it to Snapdragon, who passes it back, they dodge the Vos team. Krok hits it into the air, folks, Kickback's here, he's kicked the ball…

And It's a Goal!

"Yeah!" The Vehicon shouted, jumping up and down, "Take that Vos, nobody messes with home team, nobody!"

"Lay off the engex Ard-37," the bartender said.

Lyzack scanned the room, and saw a familiar pink figure wave her over.

She pulled up a chair and sat down to where Sparkstalker and Arc-5 were playing a game of checkers.

"Just finished air patrol?" Sparkstalker asked.

Lyzack nodded, sipping her coolant.

"Did you hear the news?" Arc-5 said, making his move.

"What news?" she said.

"We got these mega containers that we can't open," Sparkstalker said as Arc-5 captured one of his pieces, "Top secret stuff."

"Wow," Lyzack said, "Do Strika and Octane know what's in them?"

"Nope, everyone's in the dark," Sparkstalker said, moving another piece.

"What do you think's in them?" she asked.

"Some quality time with the DJD if you start snooping," Sparkstalker said, hopping 4 of Arc-5's pieces to reach his end of the board, "King me."

"God Dammit," Arc-5 said, putting another checker on top of Sparstalker's victorious piece.

"Arc-5, what kind of Vehicon is that at the bar?" Lyzack asked.

Arc-5 looked up at him, "Truck kind," he said.

"How many kinds are there?" she asked.

"Well, that's an interesting story," Arc-5 said, trying to salvage his game, "When the Vehicons were commissioned there were only 2 types, air and ground, pretty basic guys to fill out the troop structure. Nowadays they added more assets to us. New Vehicons are built in five models, and we're all given the chance to upgrade if we have a good service record, like yours truly."

Sparkstalker's king was wreaking havoc on Arc-5's rear pieces.

"In addition to the two basic types, there's three specialized kinds. There's the heavy armored Tank-Vehicons. Their big and can shrug off damage with their shields, and they pack a bigger punch than any of my blasters. Slaughterhouse over there," he gestured at the bartender, "Is a Truck-Vehicon. Better armor than me, and second only to the tanks, but they got way better mobility. They're mostly supply guys, they can store and transport energon in their drums. They can also generate electric shocks and shields, better yet, the conversion and chargers in them regulates the fuel, so if they're shot, the explosion's really lessened unlike if you shoot a fuel tank. That's what I hope to upgrade to."

Arc-5 captured one of Sparkstalker's pieces, but it was really a trap, and Sparkstalker took two of his. Arc-5 had only 2 pieces left.

"We can also upgrade into a helicopter Vehicon. That's only for bots with good shooting skills, Helicopters get the sniper technology, their armor is about the same as us though. There's also the elite class. They are soldiers who are recognized for their service and are given tougher armor and more powerful blasters. They get a cool silver color scheme to."

At this point, Sparkstalker had beaten Arc-5.

"That's 64 wins for me and 13 for you," Sparkstalker said.

"Oh my God! I can't stand this game, can't we do something else?"

As if to answer his question, a blue boxy bot rushed into the room, holding a few large boxes.

"Guys! Guess what I got?" the mech shouted, Lyzack pulled up his profile, Brushguard, a biological scientist.

"Contraband!"

With that wonderful magical word, all optics were on him.

Lyzack realized he was holding DVD's.

"Hallelujah!" shouted one Vehicon.

"It better not be another one of those human copulation videos again, those were gross," the bartender said.

"No, no, not another Witchraft movie," Brushguard said, Lyzack noticed Sparstalker and a few others shiver in disgust at the mention.

"This film's from the same director as the Titanic," Brushguard said.

"I still think that the ship should have defeated the iceberg," Arc-5 muttered.

Brushguard went over to the television, and put in the DVD. Sparkstalker fiddled with the wiring and remotes until both TV's displayed the video.

Most of the Cons swarmed the two, and Lyzack put herself down on one of the couches, next to a blue bot who looked flight capable.

The film was about some blue alien creatures being invaded by humans to harvest their resources. The Decepticons were enraptured by the effects but nonplussed by the fairly average story.

"Why does a film by humans attempt to paint their conquest in a negative light?" she asked the bot next to her.

Slipstream turned to look at the younger green bot, "I don't know. Humans should exterminate these vermin, and take the Ore from them. Their feelings for these natives are irrelevant."

"I guess that makes sense," Lyzack said.

"No wonder the Autobots gravitate to these hypocrites," Slipstream said.

Lyzack only nodded and turned back to the television.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terradive is based on his Transformers Movie design
> 
> I played the Transformers Prime Game and it introduced three new Vehicons to me: Truck, Helicopter and Tank
> 
> I based their designs here on those. Elite troopers are the Silver Jet Vehicons and the cars if they also had a silver paint job.
> 
> Brushguard is his Cybertron self.
> 
> Kickback is in his Fall of Cybertron body
> 
> Snapdragon and Krok both have G1 forms.
> 
> Flatline is based off his IDW form, but with tiny deployable chest arms like his Movie version (and spinning death blades to). He transforms into a herse.
> 
> Torca is Timelines Clench in Beast Era Torca's colors
> 
> And yes, the Decepticons are watching Avatar.


End file.
